User:Trevor J. Petcher

CV and a PDF version of my talk in Erice, 30th May, 2008 to be added later.

Short professional biography:
Birthdate 1943, now retired after 37 years in the pharmaceutical industry (one company).

British nationality, resident in Switzerland.

Languages: English, German, Swiss German, passable French, smatterings of Italian, Spanish, and Portugese.

B.Sc. (Chemistry) 1964, Ph.D. (Chemical Crystallography) 1967, both University of Sheffield, England. MRSC 2001-2007.

Small-molecule crystallographer 1967-1979 (1967-71 postdoc with Peter J. Pauling, UCL London, 1971-79 industrial small-molecule crystallographer Sandoz Pharma AG, Basel),

Molecular pharmacologist 1979-81,

Middle management 1979-1992,

Senior management 1992-2008,

Drug Designer,

Molecular Modeller (especially small cyclic peptides),

Promotor of productive dialogue between medicinal chemists and pharmacologists, molecular biologists, and structural biologists, 1979-2008,

Head of a small group of medicinal chemists 1985-1989,

Requested to initiate medicinal chemistry on peptidomimetics, especially of somatostatin 1989-1992,

Certified "Chief Designer and Devil's Advocate" by the heads of my old department upon leaving in 1992,

Staff Head Preclinical Research, Sandoz Pharma Basel 1992-1996,

Head of Planning & Operations, Novartis Research Therapeutic Area Arthritis & Bone Metabolism (ABM) 1996-2008 (department twice re-organised to "Bone Metabolism & Gastrointestinal Diseases" (BMG) and finally to "Musculoskeletal Diseases" (MSD) in that period). Responsible for Departmental IT support and for Molecular Modelling (Romain Wolf) in Basel, until one after the other they were centralised. Departmental Intranet Webmaster.

Broad experience in Peripheral Nervous System (muscarinic agonists and antagonists, neuromuscular blocking agents), CNS (neuroleptics), Cardiovascular (beta blockers), Pain (major and minor analgesics), Endocrinology (inhibition of the secretion of pituitary hormones), Bone Metabolism, Gastroenterology (5-HT3,4), Immunology & Transplantation (especially cyclosporins), Arthritis (rheumatoid- and osteo-), and finally Muscle Disorders. Experimental biological experience in radioactive binding studies (Opioid, GABA), receptor autoradiography in brain slices, monoclonal antibodies (GH). Wrote the Pharmacology section of EU registration documentation for quinagolide and received expedited review. Was involved in selecting Group Heads and staff when Sandoz Research first set up Gastroenterology, then Bone Metabolism groups. Extensive contacts to clinicians in endocrinology and arthritis. Laboratory automation, molecular graphics, mainframe and PC programming since 1964 (FORTRAN, Pascal, Modula-2, LISP, machine learning). Budgeting and Controlling since 1991, Strategic Research Planning since 1981. Project Reviews (company-internal), evaluation of external collaboration opportunities, and Due Diligences. Departmental closures and relocations, planning and construction of new laboratories. Desktop Publishing, digital image processing, website design and maintenance including dynamic HTML from databases.

Marketed Drugs:
Co-inventer of octreotide (SMS 201-995, Sandostatin),

Inventor of the class of octahydrobenzo[g]quinolines as a replacement for ergot alkaloids and ergolines, co-inventor (with Rene Nordmann) of quinagolide (SDZ 205-502, Norprolac)

Awards:
Sandoz Golden Triangle for Entrepreneurship 1996 (with Wilfried Bauer, Peter Marbach) for Sandostatin.

ACS Heroes of Chemistry 2000 (with Wilfried Bauer) for invention and development of Sandostatin.

Future Plans:
Freelance consulting in all aspects of structure-based drug design.

Active contribution to Proteopedia.

Formation of a network of retired experts in medicinal chemistry and pharmacology from industry and academia, maintain a website of interested parties (www.tcnn.ch) as a central site of contact for essentially independent associates, and if successful consider setting up a GmbH in Switzerland for this purpose. The emphasis should be on using our expertise to meet medical needs which are not essentially of sufficient commercial interest for Big Pharma.

Enjoy my remaining life and hope to continue to alleviate suffering.